Two Years

These are some of my thoughts that I’ve collected for the past few days, just what came out of my head:

School ended for me on June 6th. It is now June 15th. We spent the past 9 days packing up our house in San Antonio, moving across the country, finding an apartment in Boston, losing an apartment in Boston, finding another and signing it, reconnecting with my brother and sister-in-law, and seeing a few well-missed friends. It’s been a whirl-wind experience, and I look forward to experience the rest of this summer with so many firsts.

But almost a week and a half has passed since school has ended and I have definitely had time to ruminate on the past two years. There’s not much to say that has not been said already. I never saw myself in the classroom, but these past two years have given me experiences, perspectives, and thoughts that I never would have had if I had simply passed straight into medical school.

My class key

My classroom

It is absurd to think that I will not being seeing most of my 280 students again. I won’t stand in my classroom again and see them walk by as sophomores, while I usher in my next group crazy freshman. I hope in some way I have impacted their lives, and helped them to see that they can reach for a world outside of their 20 mile radius.

My lovely 1st period class

I am truly thankful to Teach for America for allowing me to see and live the other side of the desk as a teacher. I would have never seen or understood the behind the scenes work, be it administrative or just planning, that teachers do every day. In order to truly achieve a transformational change in education and education policy, we need education advocates from all walks of life to better understand the slowly festering crisis. To that end, TFA has achieved it’s goal with me: I will forever be an education advocate.

I’m looking forward to the future, with some excitement, some fear, and a lot of butterflies. Medical school will be tough…but it definitely won’t be the same type of tough as 30 expectant pairs of eyes staring at me, Miss Shah, and expecting me to fill their brains with knowledge.